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Video and Petition: Children Say ‘Andrew Jackson Has Got to Go’

ICTMN Staff

5/29/14

A group of students from Massachusetts are petitioning the Obama administration to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and replace him with “someone who was more committed to liberty and justice for ALL.”

“Although Andrew Jackson was a war hero, a champion of the common man, and a popular president, his shameful treatment of slaves and Native Americans should disqualify him from being on the $20 bill,” says the petition.

“While leading troops against Native Americans, Jackson favored killing women and children after massacres to eliminate future threats. As a prosperous slave owner, he sympathized with those who wanted tribal land for cotton production. As President, he passed the Indian Removal Act and initiated the forced removal we now call the Trail of Tears. When the Supreme Court sided with the Cherokee, Jackson became the only president to openly defy a Supreme Court ruling,” the petition continues.

“Even by the standards of his time, he was vindictive and dishonorable. Certainly, we can find a better role model than Jackson!”

The students also created a video urging people to sign their petition and remove Jackson.

Video of Andrew Jackson Has Got To Go

The children need 100,000 signatures by June 15 to get President Barack Obama to issue a formal response. So, if you agree with them—that Andrew Jackson has got to go, sign the petition at Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov.

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Comments

Yes, Mr. Jackson was quite the wild man in his day. So arrogant that he defied Congress & preceded with some of our brothers & sisters of the Nations forced removal from lands our ancestors had lived on for eons.
There are FAR more deserving choices of human beings to grace the face of the $20 bill. How about choosing someone from among OUR many deserving ancestors!

Why not a REAL American Native on the $20 bill? I can think of at least 50 NDN Chiefs who faced tribulations unfathomable by Andrew Jackson.
It's not hard to be powerful when you've got the army and money of a nation behind you. Why not honor someone who was powerful as his land was being taken away, his people being slaughtered, his way of life being threatened so that history could be rewritten to favor jerks like Jackson, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and other historical American figures we were spoon-fed to believe really wanted truth and justice above all?

And we need to start publicly humiliating them and flogging the corrupt politicians broad cast it online to everybody document every misdeed they've done and not pay them to go retire with an army of secret service men to protect them. All criminals should be treated this way and we wouldn't have so much crime and corruption.

A mandatory history class on this nations First Peoples is a must for all ages in school. Also a mandatory course, or indoctrination class on Indigenous history and treaties with the US government as well as state governments should be instituted for all public employees, judges and politicians in all the states and federal government. This will educate employees and politicians of the Indigenous People in America and their rights to consultation before the state and federal governments continue to steal whatever the Indigenous people have left, with the blessings and help of our clueless and uneducated so called leaders who have made it a career to be part of the system that takes from the Indigenous and gives to the states and feds, as well as whatever conglomerates are in the theft of our resources and lands.

A mandatory history class on this nations First Peoples is a must for all ages in school. Also a mandatory course, or indoctrination class on Indigenous history and treaties with the US government as well as state governments should be instituted for all public employees, judges and politicians in all the states and federal government. This will educate employees and politicians of the Indigenous People in America and their rights to consultation before the state and federal governments continue to steal whatever the Indigenous people have left, with the blessings and help of our clueless and uneducated so called leaders who have made it a career to be part of the system that takes from the Indigenous and gives to the states and feds, as well as whatever conglomerates are in the theft of our resources and lands.
Include that Christopher Columbus was a lost slaver, rapist and mass murderer with the murder of 500,000 Indigenous to his credit, who fittingly died of syphilis with a gaping hole where his nose used to be.
Include that the Pilgrims murdered their Indigenous saviors, 3 years after being saved from starvation.
The list could go on and should, even if it embarrasses our clueless and uneducated leaders who's careers hinge on how much money they can beg from the state and federal thieves on the take.